O’Morrison, Kevin THE PASSION OF BRIAN LOFTUS 1 st Books (254 pp.) $16.50 (dust jacket hardcover), $11.50 (paperback), $4.95 (electronic book) 1992, 2000, 2002 ISBN: 0-7596-7453-1 A standard tale of one man’s life, injected with something called “magic realism.” Brian Loftus is an ordinary man, born in 1915 in Missouri. His death occurs in 19 92. On the surface, he appears no different from many others of his generation. His life is a long and productive one. But Brian is no ordinary man. To begin with, he serves as a consultant to every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. He also encounters such eerie characters as the Headless Dullahan and the Merrow, pig-snouted undersea folk who snare the souls of u nsuspecting swimmers. These characters appear courtesy ofthe Kevin O’Morrison’s concept of “magic realism.” It’s an interesting concept, and in the hands of a more competent writer, could have lifted the book into the more rarified airof an exceptional read. Instead, these strange figures only add to the muddled plot of the book. The narrative skips back and forth in time, not bothering with any chronological conceit. It’s very difficult to follow and sometimes downright confusing. Basically, the book boils down to a tracing of the life of Brian Loftus and the real and fantastical characters he encounters. One real character is Kathy Clery, and when the narrative segues into the past, recounting h is first meeting with her, the reader sees the potential ofwhat this book could have been, for this section crackles with energy. Brian meets Kathy in the nineteen-forties and she becomes a vital cog in his life, as his wife and greatest supporter. Kathy is a strong, sweet woman and comes across as one of the most memorable characters in the book. Boris Chertoff is another character that stands out, but his remembrance of Brian is jerky and incomprehensible in spots, yet another example ofhow a potentially good plot is d ragged down by the disjointed narrative. A disorderly, rambling book with a few good descriptive scenes.
